Caffeine Effects on Lumbriculus variegatus

1. Caffeine Effects on Lumbriculus variegatus Kali Benjovsky and Connor Barleben Procedure: Label 6 cups “.5mM” “5mM” “5mM caffeine recovery” “.5mM caffeine recovery” “distilled” “distilled recovery” and place 2mm of the caffeine solution and 2mm of the distilled water in the cups. Use the eyedropper to put 10 worms in “distilled” cup and put 10 worms in “.5mM” cup. Leave the worms in “.5mM” for 15 minutes. Start the “5mM” for 15 minutes after the first 10 minutes are done.Place a “.5mM” worm in a wellslide underneath the microscope on 10x. Count the pulse rate for each worm at the mid-section for 30 seconds. Put the worms counted in the “ .5mM caffeine recovery” cup after each are tested and record data in table doubling the 30 seconds to a minute. Repeat procedures 4 and 5 for the “5mM” and “distilled” worms. Introduction: Caffeine is a stimulant that effects the central nervous system. Caffeine can be found in tea, coffee, chocolate, and most sodas. In it’s most purest form it is a white, chalky powder. It stimulates the heart and boasts metabolic rate. This addictive substance that has withdrawal symptoms on people. The molecular formula for caffeine is C8H10N4O2. It reacts with the A1 receptor called adenosine receptors. The Lumbriculus variegates are also known as blackworms that have been used for many different testing's. Caffeine is believed to have no harmful effects on the Lumbriculus variegates. In our experiment, different levels of caffeine were used on the California blackworms and was compared to worms in distilled water. Results: The caffeine increased at a steady rate by ten pulses per trial. The caffeine at 5mM was the highest with 45 pulse’s per minute. Conclusion: : The .5mM caffeine solution had an increase in the worm heart rate by 10 pulses per minute on average. The 5mM caffeine solution also had an effect on the worms pulse rate. The rate was increased by 20 pulse rates per minute. These results supported our hypothesis because the pulse rate was faster then the distilled worm. We noticed that worms in the 5mM solution did not group into clumps and turned a yellow/green color. The .5mM caffeine worms split into multiple parts. A variable that effected our data was the amount of time the worms were in the water. When the 15 minutes of waiting was up, each worm that remained in the container as we were counting had to wait. Therefore, the worms could have been in the caffeine solution for up to 30 minutes. Timing the blackworms for 30 seconds could have resulted in skewed data. If the worms were counted by a minute each it would have resulted in better data. Also to fix the experiment, separate containers could have been used for each of the 10 worms. Doing this would result in an more accurate experiment. Hypothesis: If we add different caffeine solutions (5mM and .5mM) to the worms then, the worms pulse rate will e faster then the distilled worm. Variables: Independent: caffeine Dependent: pulse rate Control Group: worms in distilled water Controls: temperature, microscope, stopwatch, person counting Materials: 30 worms, eye dropper, wellslides, caffeine solution (.5mM)and (5mM), distilled water, stopwatch, microscope, 6 cups • http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/caffeine/NU00600http://www.steadyhealth.com/articles/Positive_And_Negative_Health_Effects_Of_Caffeine_a801. htmlhttp://svmsl.chem.cmu.edu/vmsl/Caffeine/Caffeine_effects.htm - research on caffeine. • http://www.aquarium-kosmos.de/inhalt/42/glanzwurm-lumbriculus-variegatus - picture of wormhttp://www.caffeine.com/ - picture of caffeine • http://www.eeob.iastate.edu/faculty/DrewesC/htdocswww.eeob.iastate.edu/faculty/DrewesC/htdocs/WORMSO5.htmwww.eeob.iastate.edu/faculty/DrewesC/htdocs/LVCULT.htm- Information on worm